The scoop on led lighting

I’d like to take this opportunity to brighten your day and maybe help save some energy too. And this may even make you feel like you’ve accomplished a “light remodel.”
 
LEDs (light emitting diodes) have been around since the 1960’s in many different forms. They’re responsible for those little glows we see on computers, phones, appliances and lots of other places. They’re even being used for headlights in our cars now. It’s only been about a decade or so that LED bulbs for use in our homes have been readily and economically available. They are replacing or have replaced incandescent bulbs in broad fashion saving tons of electricity and come without nasty stuff in them like mercury in fluorescent bulbs, making them safer and much better for our environment. This isn’t a technical article by any means, and I always advise consulting an electrician if you’re doing much more than changing older bulbs for newer ones with the same screw-in base. Below, I’ll share some practical experiences I’ve had over the last several years.
 
First of all, energy efficiency is a great reason for switching to LED bulbs. The 40, 60, or 75 watt incandescent bulbs that were used for generations got hot and used a great deal of electricity in our homes, especially during winter months when we have so few hours of sunlight. LED bulb replacements, which produce about the same amount of light, are rated around 6-9 watts. A huge saving on our energy bills, especially if you’re the type of person who likes well-lit rooms. Electricity consumption is not a large percentage of our typical energy bill, but imagine how much less electricity would be needed from the power company if entire cities or counties switched to all LED bulbs at about 10-15% of the power needed in the past.
 
Generally, LED bulbs don’t get hot. Be careful though, as some of them will get a little warm around the base, but it’s pretty cool (pun intended) that you can have an LED bulb that’s been illuminated for hours and can grab ahold of it without burning your hand. Don’t try that with an old incandescent one!
 
Here’s what I think is the most fun part about using LED bulbs: they come in different “color temperatures” according to a Kelvin rating (remember, this isn’t supposed to be a technical article). Basically, the higher the Kelvin rating, the more white and white/blue the light becomes. It’s absolutely astonishing how much the look of furniture, flooring, walls and ceilings can change simply by using bulbs with different Kelvin ratings.  According to several online articles and what I’ve found available at retailers, the most commonly available standard bulbs (with that well known screw-in base) are:
 
2700K Warm White
3000K Soft White
3500K Neutral White
4000K Bright White
5000K Daylight
 
There are many more, by the way, but are usually hard to find. I don’t favor anything below 3500K because of the yellow/tan tones of the light. The 5000K is a bit too blue—think operating room in a hospital. I like the 4000K because to my eye it is just plain light and doesn’t seem to change the color of things around it.  Several times, as a joke, I’ve put bulbs or fixtures in that were, say, 3000K and asked someone how it looked. When they replied that it made the wall color look “off” I told them I’d paint the wall for them. Then I simply switched the bulb to a different color temperature when they weren’t around then easily convinced them I had painted the wall when I actually had just changed a few light bulbs.
 
And here’s the next super fun thing about LEDs for recessed light applications, especially. Old “can lights”, as they’re sometimes called, basically have three components: the “can” or housing that’s mounted in the ceiling/attic, a decorative trim for the hole cut in the drywall ceiling, and a light bulb. Available at local retailers (and Amazon is where I usually get them) are replacements for the trim and bulb that are integrated into one piece and are easy to install, providing a much cleaner and modern look than the end of an old lightbulb. For only around 10 bucks each. And the real magic is that they have a slider switch on the side or top (depending on brand) that allows you to switch the color of the light, usually along the whole spectrum shown above from 2700-5000K. You can set all the lights at a certain color, read the room, then change the color in only a matter of seconds on each light fixture.
 
Many of the homes I deal with in my business here were built in the 1960’s and 1970s and many bedrooms, living and family rooms had no lights installed at all. A switch by the door only operated a receptacle on the wall where a lamp was needed. A fairly new twist on recessed lights that we’ve been using the last few years in such homes are lights that need no housing. There’s no giant “can” in the ceiling and the newfangled recessed lights just clip into the hole in the drywall ceiling. This is doable because LED lights are so cool (literally and figuratively) that the housing is not needed to protect framing, insulation, etc. from the heat of the fixture. I put more than two dozen of these in my ceilings when I bought my home two years ago. These run between $18-$35 each, more than the trim/light I mentioned above, because they come with a tethered electrical box and small transformer. Still a great deal for modern lighting.
 
I hope this helps brighten your day a little. And if you’d like an onsite consult I’d happy to come over and tell you more about what I know about LED lighting.